composer&saxophonist

Flarista

Instrumentation: Solo Piano

Premiered: November 15th 2016, at The Armory in Somerville, MA by Sophia Vastek.

Program Note: Technically and sonically, this piece is inspired by the sound of a neuron firing in a fruit fly. However, I was most drawn to the idea of the fly’s awareness of its predicament while the data is being collected. Do the fly’s thoughts get drowned out by the sound of the neuron firing? Is the fly having an existential crisis? It is responding to a stimulus but does it know how it’s responding? What if it wants to respond differently? Ultimately, such thoughts are futile – the response continues and overwhelms the will of the fly.